Internic, or Network Solutions, was the original domain name licensing authority for the United States. They previously had a monopoly on domain name registration that was granted to them by the US Department of Commerce, until November, 1999, when competition was enforced and they were required to share their database and registry services with anyone who qualified as a registrar. ICANN is the newly appointed organization that oversees domain name registration issues.
See Also: ICANN, REGISTRAR